by J. M. Lyons
like energy pulling me to gaze harder at the moon, so I did. I felt
the wind pick up a little; and the light of the fire grew a bit too,
brightly lighting the entire area. I could hear the ripples in the
water starting to swish around a bit more.
Suddenly I felt warm hands on my forearms under the jacket
that hung over my shoulders; completely releasing the odd feeling
that I had. "Hey, you ok.?" Jon said softly. "Um, yeah I think so." I
said, trying to shake the weirdness off. The wind slowly backed
down again to a cool breeze. The sloshing of water seemed to
calm, and the fire seemed to flicker slowly, now only lighting a
small area of the yard. Everything seemed to go quiet, and still.
Butterflies began to swirl in my stomach, spinning it into knots; the
nerves came back and this time it was much stronger.
"I've missed you a lot Mia." Jon said, gently turning me to face
him. I took a step back, as shyness overcame me. "I've thought about you a lot too." I said, looking deep into his soft eyes. "I wish
things didn't go down the way that it did, but I guess it was for the
better at the time." He said, looking down; breaking our gaze into
each others eyes. "Yeah you're right I guess; but neither of us was
ready for a committed relationship anyway. I mean I wasn't gonna
stop cheer leading just because you wanted me to; and you
weren't ready to give up being with the boys. Not to mention, you
cheated." I said, taking another step back.
"It was hardly cheating, Mia. I went to a movie with her and
kissed her that's all. Besides I didn't love her or anything." He
replied, as he took a step closer. "Well a kiss is a kiss, and that's
still cheating in my book, your lips are supposed to be kissing just
mine." I said, turning my face away toward the lake. "Yeah, I
know." He said, as he spun me around again to face him. He
stepped closer and pressed his warm lips against mine. I jerked a
little, caught off guard, but soon I kissed him back. The feeling of
his warm lips on mine felt new again. It was like this was the very
first time we really kissed. We stood there for awhile holding on to
each other locked in a long kiss; and with every breath we took
the butterflies faded, until there were none left.
"Mia, Mia." I heard over the sound of the crackling of the fire. I stood there in Jon's embrace and let the sound of my name fade
into the darkness. "I think Tucker's looking for you." Jon said, with
a smile as he slowly pulled his face away from mine. "Um yeah. I
can hear him." I said, as I turned back toward the house. "Over
here." I called out, as Tucker hurried across the lawn, pass the fire
pit.
"Mia, we need to go. Lily just called; she said that somethings
going on at the house. I could hear all kinds of weird sounds in the
background." Tucker said, breathing heavily. "What." I said
confused, looking at Tucker. "I think you should go and check it
out." Jon said, running his hand on my back. "Yeah, I think so." I
said turning toward him. "Can we do this again?" He said with a
smile. "Tomorrow, tomorrow." Tucker said, trying his best to hurry
me along. "Come on Mia, it sounded like an emergency." He
continued, now hurrying toward the front of the house.
We watched Tucker's silhouette disappear behind the corner
of the house. Jon walked with me toward the front yard as
Tucker's truck started up with a revving engine. "I'll come by
tomorrow to pick you up." Jon said still smiling. "That sounds like a
plan." I replied, as I hugged him tightly around his waist.
I jumped into Tucker's truck, as he peeled out of the driveway. "So, I saw you talking with Kris earlier." I said, looking over at him
with my wondering eyes. His eyes were narrowed onto the dark
road, deep in concentration. "Um, yeah I was, but I don't know.
She wants more than just a relationship and I'm not sure if I want
the same thing." He said, still glaring at the road. "Well, at least
Nadia wasn't chasing after you tonight." I laughed. "Now that
would have been a problem." Tucker chuckled, as he kept his
eyes on the road.
"So, what did Lily tell you on the phone?" I asked, wondering
what went wrong after I had left. "She said something about dad
wasn't doing too good; but she got cut off,because the next thing I
knew the phone went dead." He said, screeching his truck tires
with every turn. "Gee Tucker slow down." I demanded, as my
head bumped the window. I rubbed my head and looked back
over at Tucker, who looked so worried, and scared. "I can't; I just
have this funny feeling that something really bad is going on." He
said, as he sped down the road.
Before we reached the house we could see the swirling red
and white lights of the ambulance and cop cars. The front door
was wide open with the screen door hanging off it's hinges. "Dad."
Tucker yelled, as he quickly jumped out of the truck, and ran up the driveway toward the ambulance. I must have been taken back
by the emergency people there, because I didn't move at all. I just
sat there staring at everyone rushing around the front yard.
A police officer stopped him when he got closer. "Lily's in the
house." He said, pointing toward the house. "Where's my dad?"
He demanded, looking over at the ambulance. "We're gonna take
him to the hospital but there seemed to have been an accident."
Officer Green said, holding Tucker by the shoulders. I slowly got
out of the truck and walked quickly up the driveway.
"Tucker, what's happening?" I asked confused; as I got closer
to everyone I kept looking around. "Mia, Lily's in the house and
we're gonna take your dad to the hospital. Why don't we all go
inside." Officer Green said tugging on my arm. He and my father
worked on a few cases together before, and and he was Nadia's
uncle.
"Dad." I yelled out, trying my hardest to get some kind of view
in through the small little window of the ambulance. "He's fine, we
just need to run a few tests to make sure everything's really ok.
Then we need to get him cleaned up." The medical responder
said, as he quickly jumped into the drivers seat.
I looked around at the front of the house, then watched as the ambulance quickly drove off into the darkness of the night, as the
emergency lights shined off the tree tops. "Lily." I yelled out,
running up the old weathered porch, then through the broken front
door. Seeing how everything looked from the outside, I got very
worried.
When I got into the house I gasped; as I slowly looked
around, taking in what everything looked like. Lily sat quietly at the
table. She looked so scared; she was shaking and crying. I was
shocked to find the house completely trashed. At first, when
Tucker told me we had to leave the party, I figured that she and
dad got into a fight or something like that; but this; this just wasn't
normal. Everything about it wasn't normal at all.
The couch was tossed, and dirty it looked like someone threw
dirt and grass on it. The coffee table was broken in half, right
>
down the middle; the pictures that were on the wall now littered
the floor with broken frames and glass, splashed with blood. There
was long cuts on the wall, like someone ran a knife through it. The
window facing the back yard was broken in with the screen
hanging off the window pane.
"Lily; what happened?" I asked, slowly walking toward her
trying to avoid any broken glass. "I; I don't know Mia. I was asleep; then someone drove up the driveway and your dad said that he
would go and check it out. Then I heard a horn, or something like
it. So I sat up, waiting for your dad to come back. All of a sudden
I heard a loud crashing like glass breaking. So, I got out of bed,
and opened the bedroom door; but when I got into the hallway
there was this unbelievable strong gust of wind that kept blowing.
It was so hard that I couldn't make it to the steps. I got on my
knees and crawled to the steps." She explained, holding her
hands tightly on the side of her head, with a dazed and confused
look. "Gust of wind?" I asked startled at her story.
Lily never lied to any of us and I had no reason to think that
she would. But strong winds in our house; really. There was no
strong winds when we got home, nor was there any at the party.
"Yeah; see they didn't believe me." She said, pointing to the two
policemen that stood the next to the refrigerator, looking at her like
she was crazy. "I couldn't move Mia; I literally had to crawl my way
to the steps. When I got there I could hear someone yelling, which
was funny because I couldn't hear anything earlier; there was
absolutely no noise, just wind. But, when I got closer I could hear
yelling. So I kept close to the ground and crawled my way down
the stairs.” She said trying her best to explain what happened without crying.
"I could hear your dad, and it sounded like he was chanting or
something; I don't know how to explain it.” She said very
confused. “But the wind kept getting stronger and stronger. I
couldn't make out the words; like I had no idea what he was
saying." She said, wiping tears away from her eyes, with her
small shaky hands.
Just then Tucker appeared behind me, tossing his jacket onto
the chair next to me. "What the hell." He said, looking around then
at Lily. She didn't answer him; she just continued with her story.
"The next thing I knew; I was on floor at the bottom of the steps,
and your dad was in the middle of the living room on the floor,
crouched over. He had cuts all over him, and the blood was
scattered all over on the broken glass. So I got the phone and
called 911." She said, still shaken over what happened.
"Tucker can I speak with you, privately?" Officer Green said,
stepping over the broken glass. "Um yeah, sure." Tucker replied,
turning toward him. They both went out onto the front porch. "I bet
he'll tell your brother that I'm crazy; and that your dad and I just
got into a really bad fight or something like that." Lily said, looking
out the front window. "No, he's probably saying him that everything is gonna be ok. See, they're hugging." I said, watching.
"Come on fellas, let's go." Officer Green called out. The police
officers all filed out one by one. "Lily, Mia, you guys alright?" We
heard a voice say coming from the kitchen door. "Yeah, um every
things fine. Come on in." I called out. Mrs. Hawks stepped into the
kitchen, with her over sized nighty and her hair in curlers, she
slowly stepped into the house; her short stature made her steps
very small. "Sorry for coming by so late; but I heard some awful
noises earlier. Are you ok Lily?" She asked, in a I need to know
what happened kind of way.
She was an old lady, and just like most older ladies, she was
the most nosiest person in town. She always had to know
everybody's business. "Yeah um, everything's fine, and there's
nothing to see." I said, stopping her in the kitchen. I put my arms
out to block her from seeing Lily who's back faced us. "Lily's fine,
she just needs some time alone." I said, nudging her back toward
the kitchen door.
"Oh ok Mia. You know I just wanted to make sure, because
me and my husband thought that it was you standing in the
driveway just before all the noise started." She said, pointing her
finger at me. "What do you mean Mrs. Hawks? I just got home." I said confused. "Well yes Mia. There was a woman and a man
standing in the driveway, and they blew a horn of some sort; and
the woman looked exactly like you, she had really long red hair
too." She said, stepped out the back door.
She saw a woman and man standing in the driveway, I
thought to myself. "Well, I'm not sure about that Mrs. Hawks but I
assure you that everything is fine." I said, stepping out onto the
back porch with her. "Well if you folks ever need anything, don't
forget that we live right there, ok dear." She said with a smile. "Yes
Mrs. Hawks. Thank you." I said, waving good bye as she slowly
walked off the porch and disappeared into the shadow of the
house.
I couldn't believe that Mrs. Hawks thought she saw me. What
was going on. Why would she think it was me with a man. Just
then a horrible thought came to my mind. I wonder if my mom
came back with James and something happened. But why? How
could all this be happening? I thought as I locked the back door.
"Look at this mess." Lily said, as she keeled down picking up the
broken picture frames.
I grabbed the trash can and helped to clean up the shattered
glass. I dusted the couch and set the cushions back into place. Tucker stuck his head through the door, just as I heard a loud
truck pull up. "Who is that?" I asked, looking up at Tucker. "It's
uncle Tom; Officer Green said that he called him to come over
before we got here." Tucker said, heading down the steps. "Lily;
did they say anything about dad? When we got here they were
just leaving for the hospital." I said, tossing the glass that was near
the couch into the trash.
"Oh my god, David." She said in a panic. "I've got to get to
the hospital." She said, jumping to her feet. "No; maybe we should
wait a little, until you've cleaned up a bit." I said, pointing at her
ripped sleeping shirt. "Oh; yeah I guess your right." She said still
very confused and dazed, as she looked down at herself. "Mia,
Lily; Uncle Tom's gonna take me to the hospital to see dad."
Tucker said, as he hurried in to grab his jacket off the chair.
"Alright Tucker, can you tell your dad that I'm ok, and that I'll
see him soon." Lily said, with tears filling up in her eyes again.
"Sure no problem." He replied, as he rushed out the door. It took
Lily and I a few hours to clean up the mess. All the while she
cleaned she had this dazed and confused look on her face; I
guess trying to make sense of everything that happened.
I could tell she was still very unsure about what really went on. I myself couldn't understand what Mrs. Hawks meant by she
thought it was me in the driveway. I just couldn't figure it out. After
Lily and I finished cleaning, we both went upstairs to get changed.
But before I knew it I was fast asleep. I didn't even hear if Tucker
got home.
The next morning I slowly woke to the smell of pancakes and
coffee. I slowly opened my eyes to the bright sun that was shining
right through my window. I wondered if Tucker got home; I
wondered if my dad got home too. I hurried out of bed and ran
down stairs. Dad, Tucker and uncle Tom sat in the living room.
Uncle Tom and my dad were raised together like brothers.
They did everything together; they went fishing, hunting, they even
went for long hikes in the forests. Uncle Tom was much older than
dad was, and I don't think he had a job, although he did managed
to make ends meet. As I stood there looking at everyone, I
noticed that Tucker had this look of complete and utter disbelief.
"Dad, are you ok?" I asked softly, taking notice that his arm
was in a sling, and his bruised face with little cut's all over it. "Oh
yeah, baby I'm fine." He said with a smile. "Why don't you go help
Lily finish breakfast." He said, still with his smile on his face. "Um
sure. Hi uncle Tom." I said, confused about everything that was going on. "Hey Mia." Uncle Tom said as I walked closer to him.
"Congratulations on your graduation yesterday." He said with a
smile. "Thanks." I said, as I continued toward the kitchen.
"Lily you need some help?" I asked, as I took the corner into
the kitchen. "Sure, why don't you scramble those eggs for me."
Lily replied softly. She looked much better this morning. "So, are
you ok? I mean how are you feeling this morning?" I asked
standing beside her, cracking the eggs into a mixing bowl. "I'm
alright, especially now that your dads home. He got back from the
hospital early this morning with Tom." She said, still with a smile
on her slightly worried face.
"That's good. I guess everything at the hospital went well then
huh." I said also smiling, as I scrambled the eggs. "Yeah, I guess it
did." She replied. When everything was done cooking, Lily walked
over to the dining room to set the table. "Breakfast is ready." I
called out. Tucker hurried out through the back door without
eating or saying anything; and drove off in his truck.
Dad and Uncle Tom came over to the table and sat down.
"Where's Tucker going?" I asked watching him drive off. "Ah don't
